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Talk:Bert
One page? Should we have just one page for both Ernie and Bert and put it in Character Pairs?--Fred (talk) 00:36, June 2, 2011 (UTC) :There's no reason for it. Both pages are extremely detailed and the characters have had significant existences in their own right, in solo skits or paired with other characters. We only merge for pairs where the characters are defined entirely (or nearly so) in relation to each other, as with Statler and Waldorf, Pip and Pop or Philo and Gunge. We merge when a combined page would be stronger and clearer to visitors than two individual pages, and that's clearly not the case here. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 00:44, June 2, 2011 (UTC) Age? On the show or in books, they've never formally addressed the issue of Bert and Ernie's age, have they? This article about Sesame Street Live says Bert is 7. Of course, SSL's Facebook trivia had an incorrect correct answer 3 out of 4 days they ran it. This is just random BS on their part, I assume? -- Zanimum 15:50, January 8, 2010 (UTC) :I've only heard of "official" ages for Big Bird and Elmo. The only time I've heard any mention of how old Ernie might be was when he was telling Bert how many years he had to go to school to be a doctor, so I'm assuming he's still somewhere in elementary school (even though we never see him go there). I'll have to find that sketch. -- Ken (talk) 02:51, January 9, 2010 (UTC) ::Yeah, whether it's random or not, Bert and Ernie's ages have always been subject to flotation, much like Grover; the books often treat them as younger (Ernie in pre-school sometimes, Bert in a "big kids" ballet class in I Want to Be a Ballerina), sometimes beyond school, Bert has a brother who's a salesman, Ernie flies a plane in Follow That Bird, they live alone in an apartment sans parents, etc. So basically their ages have never been pinned down and Sesame Street Live-only claims don't count. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 00:51, January 18, 2010 (UTC) Left-handed? A contributor added that Bert is left-handed. Is this really trivia, since most Muppets wind up being left-handed due to their performers working the characters' mouths with their right hand? -- Ken (talk) 03:30, 17 February 2009 (UTC) :Yeah, you're right. -- Danny (talk) 03:44, 17 February 2009 (UTC) ::Was about to make the same point. Although, it might make an interesting new page to list the 'handedness' of muppets. :-) Ratface 04:15, 17 February 2009 (UTC) :::I think everybody's right-handed except for Louise Gold, so it would be their opposite hand. -- Ken (talk) 04:19, 17 February 2009 (UTC) ::::As many Muppet fans know, most puppeteers are right-handed (although there are exceptions, Louise Gold is one and I believe there are a few minor performers out there too); and so the lead puppeteer controls the head of the puppet with their dominant hand (their right) and then uses their non-dominant hand (their left) to control the puppets' hand (making the puppet left handed). A second puppeteer will occasionally step in to assist with the other hand (the right hand) in scenes where both hands are needed. So most characters are left handed. ::::However there are a few situations where a puppet could be right handed -- 1) if the lead puppeteer is left handed, then the puppet will be right handed. 2) if neither of the arms or hands are performed by the performer of the head (like The Swedish Chef or Blind Pew; or even other cases where both arm rods are done by someone other than the lead puppeteer helming the head), then the handedness of the puppet is not bound by the rule of being the opposite of the puppeteer, and often follows the handedness of the performer(s) doing the hands. 3) if a scene or shot simply works better if the puppet does something with their right hand rather then their left, then the puppeteers will act accordingly - so sometimes a puppet's handedness will switch or change as needed for the moment (there are some shots of Kermit or Bert doing things in a right-handed way). and often times photographers of the photo puppets, illustrators of books, animators, walkarounds, and other items will show the characters as right handed -- so you can't really say Bert's left handedness is a permanent or eternal character trait (unless the character has been used in some plot or story focusing on the fact they are left-handed or something). ::::A list of the 2,000+ Muppet characters by handedness would be long, boring, and somewhat overly trivial in my opinion. If the fact can be worked into an article in an appropriate way, I don't see a reason to outlaw it. But dwelling on it, having a disproportionate focus on it, or just tacking it on as a random trivia note for the sake of trivia – well, I don't see the point. -- Brad D. (talk) 05:33, 17 February 2009 (UTC) :::::I think a page about this would be interesting for the Behind the Scenes category. Brad, what you just wrote would make a great start for an article. We could flesh that out with examples and pictures and whatnot, and make a great page. I agree that listing it on individual character pages is dull, but a good page along the lines of Muppet Eyes would be really fun. -- Danny (talk) 05:50, 17 February 2009 (UTC) Performer switch User:Muppetlover changed the date for Eric Jacobson to 1997, presumably because of a sentence on Jacobson's page saying that he started playing Bert "semi-regularly" in 1997. No source is given for that statement, however, nor any specifics. In post 1997 appearances such as Elmopalooza, it's still Frank Oz. The earliest Jacobson performance as Bert I can pinpoint is Sesame Street Goes to the Doctor from 1999. So before anyone else fiddles with the dates, I think it would be useful to try to be specific, both sourcing when Jacobson first took over, and as far as the performer box is concerned, when he first became the primary performer (Play with Me Sesame seems like a possibility, but it still needs sourcing). If we can't find a source for either 1997 *or* 2000 or anything else, I'd suggest using the closest date we can find and adding a "ca.," and discussing what we know in more detail in a sub-section. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:10, 22 December 2007 (UTC) Attention You know, as the Wiki has grown and we all work on our pet interests and obscure characters, it's easy to overlook how sad some of the pages for major characters or productions are. There's exactly two sentences about Bert as a character, the rest being filmography, bibliography, trivia (I'd like to put the Bert is Evil thing somewhere else, frankly), and international names (which will go on a seperate page when I get around to it). Ernie is pretty weak too, though it has a section on how the puppet is operated. Andrew Leal (talk) 15:22, 29 June 2006 (UTC) :I hope the little tidbit I put in was helpful trivia. :) Dave Splurge 14:58, 1 July 2006 (UTC) ::Yeah, that's actually more than trivia, in my opinion -- it would work if it were moved up into the main article. It would be better if we had the actual quote -- do you have a copy of that special handy? -- Danny (talk) 15:30, 1 July 2006 (UTC) :::It's missing the first 15 min., but I do have it on tape, yes. Both Jim and Frank have something to say about Bert as a character. I'll quote both. -Dave Splurge 01:03, 2 July 2006 (UTC) ::::Excellent! That would be great. -- Danny (talk) 01:09, 2 July 2006 (UTC) Previous Custom-Made Bert Photo Why did you delete the previous Bert picture I did (in which his eyes were close together, like the present-day Bert puppet)?! That was the best one yet! -- TheSitcomLover 2:20, March 22, 2011 (UTC)